Maybe
by linh cinder
Summary: Maybe Jason doesn't love his girlfriend; maybe Reyna loves someone else. Maybe Leo actually likes Reyna, and maybe Piper doesn't trust herself. (meant for liper december (AGAIN); multichaptered AU; liper/jeyna)
1. train tracks

_.-._ .-._ .-._ **Leo**_.-._ .-._ .-._

* * *

"This is our stop."

The train whistled and groaned as it screeched into the station. The sound of metal gliding across metal filled the car, but Leo wasn't really paying attention and didn't hear his friend as he tapped his fingers on his leg, doing his little leg-dip thing when he got to his favorite part of the song he was listening to.

Dim and artificial light poured into the train car. Out of the corner of his eye, Leo saw the businesswoman to his right spring to her feet. On the other side of him, a seemingly annoyed Jason yanked the ear bud out of his left ear. _"Leo."_

"What?" Leo snapped reflexively as other people in the car began to stand, hugging their tablets and briefcases close to themselves. The sound of Daft Punk hummed in his left ear. He snapped his gaze to his friend, and Jason grabbed his shoulder in exasperation, yanking out his other ear bud in the process.

The air smelled faintly of sewage, which was homage to their being underground. The blond leaned in close, gripping a lackluster rail with one hand. "We're getting off, idiot. Pay attention."

"I _was,_" Leo protested, swatting Jason away. He heard the hissing noise of the car doors sliding open, and the commuters began to tumble out of the car. The two of them quickly followed, pushed along by people who had actual places to be.

When they were out on the platform, Jason turned back to face him again with a soft scowl. "No, you weren't. You were too busy listening to singing robots."

He made a face. "No, I _wasn't. _I can listen to music and concentrate at the same time, Grace. It's called _mutli-tasking."_

Jason snorted. "Really? I thought it was called getting off at the wrong stop."

Leo stuck his tongue out at his friend before giving Jason a little shove that left him undeterred as they walked. "I'm going to chose to ignore that."

Jason chuckled before motioning for Leo to follow him, and they starting off down the platform. Behind them, the train that had carried them to the station slid off down the track, and Leo concentrated on dodging bustling commuters as it did.

Staring at the back of Jason's head with his hands stuffed in his jean pockets, Leo decided to keep talking. "Besides, the guys in Daft Punk aren't singing cyborgs, asshat. They're real people. I'm pretty sure they're French. The first one, I think his name's Guy-Manuel something-_de_-something - "

"I really, really don't care."

" – And the other one's name is Thomas. I can't blame you though, I thought they were robots until I saw a picture of them chilling at the beach a couple months ago without their helmets on. It was pretty shocking stuff – "

Jason let out a long, lengthy sigh that out-volumed Leo's rant by a whole bunch of decibels. Luckily for blondie, another train slid into the station a little ways behind them, so Leo figured that he'd already annoyed the other boy enough.

They walked in something akin to silence, or as quiet as it could be in a New York subway station. Ahead of him, Jason maneuvered through the crowd of city-dwellers like an expert. In his light blue jeans, plain green t-shirt, and brown coat, he fit right in. Watching him, Leo was pretty impressed; the Californian stereotype was pretty set on learning New Englander ways.

The two of them stopped at the other end of the platform right behind a row of unlit lights. He and Jace waited with the gathering crowd for the dimmed bulbs to flash, which signaled the oncoming train. Undoubtedly going off to do something lame, Jason hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and took interest in a map close by, while Leo just hung around and scrolled through his phone for another song to listen to. He was zoning out and about to start jamming to a Glitch Mob song when someone brushed by his shoulder and cut across the safety line.

His mouth ajar to sneer at who ever it was who had bumped into him, Leo looked up from his phone to see the back of woman's head. She wore a navy blue jacket and a purple hat, and a black braid fell out over her shoulders. Normally, he wouldn't be so quick to jump at a girl (because…let's be honest. Girls were downright scary) but seeing as how the lights on the ground started flashing and that she was _dangerously_ close to the edge of the platform, he figured that now was as good of a time as any to speak up.

"Um…Lady?" Leo cleared his throat, fiddling with his tangled earbuds in one hand. He hastily took a couple of steps over the row of blinking lights and tapped the unsuspecting girl on the shoulder.

She turned around and looked at him with a startlingly dark brown pair of eyes, and the words fumbled out of his mouth as he clumsily stuck his earbuds back into his pocket. "You, uh – you kind of crossed the safety line." He pointed to the ground. "These here. And they're blinking, so…the train's coming. Yeah. Like right now. So you should probably get behind the line before you fall over the edge or something."

The girl blinked at him for a fleeting moment of what Leo read as _"why did you just talk to me you absolute scum of the earth" _before she muttered a low "Oh…thank you." and stepped back behind the flashing line of lights, standing off ways to his left.

Leo stared at her for a little while too long before muttering a quick, "Yeah, no probs." in response. Burying his hands in his pockets, he rocked on his heels just as Jason appeared next to him, done fantasizing about whatever map he had been ogling at.

Jason coughed into his gloved fist, rubbing at his nose shortly after. Leo reluctantly looked at him, finally prying his eyes off of the girl. He searched his tongue for something reasonable to say.

"So, uh...you know where we are?" he stammered.

Jason gave another series of small coughs before stuffing his hand into the pocket of his jeans. His blue eyes appeared dull and tired, and he acted generally uninterested. "Yeah, we're close to Brooklyn, right at the edge of Queens. The next ride should be pretty short."

Leo slid a hand out of his pocket and began to tap at his leg, getting restless as they waited for the train to come in. Close by, the girl with the purple hat was engrossed with her phone, sliding her finger across the screen. He tried really hard not to stare.

He turned his full attention back to Jason as a pair of bright lights illuminated the dark tunnel at the end of the platform. "Um, okay. Cool."

His eyes roamed to the girl again, and he silently cursed himself. He didn't really know what to say to Jason after that.

The train slid into the station with a loud, racking roar. A very professional-looking man in a suit dropped some papers, which were blown all over the place with the uproar of wind coming from the train. The girl with the purple hat quickly went to help, and Leo started thinking to himself _oh shit should I help too_ before his friend "goody-two shoes" Grace bounded down the platform and beat him to it.

Leo watched as Jason and the girl scurried around, grabbing papers as the man in the business suit did. They both popped back up at the same time, their hands full of official-looking paperwork, and the guy thanked them wholeheartedly. He couldn't hear the exact words he said over the hissing of the train ahead of them.

The doors creaked open. Jason slid back in place next to Leo as they entered the train, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes when the girl in the purple hat took the liberty to smile at him.

Normally he'd stand, but seeing as how the car was mostly empty when they had boarded, Leo took a seat towards the back of the car. Jason sat a little ways down but immediately got up to let the girl with the purple hat sit in his place. He said something and she smiled again, much softer this time, and Leo almost couldn't bear it. Damn perfect Jason and his stupid, perfect self.

The train lurched forward, making its way down the tracks again. The lights around them dimmed as they entered a sleek, dark tunnel. Animations of adds flickered on the walls of the subway, but seeing as how Leo wasn't really interested in buying Nesquik, he turned his attention back to the girl, who was now doing her own thing with a book in her hand as Jason chatted with another passenger.

She wasn't that far from him, and the duffle bag she had been carrying earlier occupied the seat between them. Glancing at Jason again, he started to think _"Why the hell didn't Grace just sit there?"_ when he decided to ditch the thought and turn back to the girl again.

Watching her stuff her face in what she made look like a riveting edition of _The Feynman Lectures on_ _Physics_, Leo cleared his throat.

"Hey…I've heard of that book. Is it good?"

At first, the girl kept mumbling the words of the novel under her breath as she read, and she didn't look up at all, which made him look stupid. But before Leo had time to retreat back to the reserves of his mind, she slid her finger in between the pages of her book and looked up. The look on her face was contemplative.

"Yeah…" her voice was smooth. "I just started reading it today, but it's pretty good. I know enough to deem Richard Feyman a genius."

Leo glanced at the book in her hands. She was holding a page that looked well into the hundreds. "You started reading that _today? _It looks like you're halfway through!"

"I am," she waved the book for him to see with a bit of a self-satisfied smirk. "Fast reader."

"I see," Leo replied, sinking back into his seat as the girl started going back to her book again. He didn't know much of anything about Physics – he had never heard of that book in his entire life, but if he wanted this to keep going, he had to stop being nervous and force himself to actually say something.

"You know, I read a book on Physics and antigravity a while back. Couldn't put it down."

"That joke was terrible," she said smoothly, still delved in her book without so much as a smile. His smile faltered. Leo hoped she couldn't see his heart deflate.

Next to her, Jason snickered. Leo glared at him, and he smirked back, clearly amused with his fruitless efforts.

Jason looked down at the girl. "He's full of them, you know. Leo's a bad joke encyclopedia."

"Guilty," Leo admitted with a bit of a shrug as Jason _finally _started to honor the guy code as started to fulfill his duty as wingman. "I'm the punniest guy west of the Hudson."

"We're east of the Hudson." She remarked without looking up.

"Yeah, well…that's what I meant. I didn't say smart, did I?"

He must have been getting pretty annoying – a fatal flaw of his – because the girl let out a long, drawn out sigh that sounded a little too close to Jason's before sliding an actual bookmark between the pages of her book and looking up at him with an exhausted expression.

"You're not my type." She said plainly.

"Opposites attract," Leo pointed out.

"If you think you're a chick magnet, then we're the same pole."

_Ooh - _a science diss. Harsh. "Do I at least get an A for effort?"

He got his answer when she rolled her eyes, picked up her duffle bag, and stalked away. Jason watched her go with a low whistle, and he had the audacity to raise his eyebrows back at him with a smirk. Leo sat back in his chair, his mouth slightly ajar at the display of rudeness that had just taken place not two seats away from him. His cheeks were red in embarrassment, and he was about to cuss the blonde out when a voice spoke up.

"That was _harsh."_

Leo looked up. Sitting almost directly across from him was another girl, her mouth upturned in a smirk.

Instead of trying to hit on her, he crossed his arms and frowned. "What, does no one mind their own business in New York anymore?"

"Tourists don't," she pointed out, her smirk lightening into a smile. She glanced down the car, where the girl with the purple hat sat, her face stuffed in her book again. "But seriously, though, that was pretty funny. I bet you're thinking it's her loss."

He raised an eyebrow, and she snorted in return, crossing her arms over her chest just as he had done.

Leo opened his mouth to retort, but the girl across from him looked him up and down with a pair of amused, multicolored eyes. "Trust me, it isn't."

Okay. Leo definitely felt like he'd been insulted enough.

"Don't make me spew bad jokes," he threatened with a glare, hoping his puns would scare her away just as it had with the other girl.

This time, the girl raised an eyebrow through shaggy, brown bangs that poked out of a black hat. "Try me."

Leo prepared himself for the greatest pun display of all time.

"You asked for it…what's the difference between a well-dressed man on a tricycle and a poorly dressed man on a bicycle? Attire."

She rolled her eyes. Leo thought of another.

"Who led the Jews through the semi-permeable membrane? Os_Moses."_

The girl actually snorted this time.

"What does the snowman from Frozen do when something's funny?"

The answer lurking at the tip of his tongue, Leo waited a little while before saying it aloud. When he didn't give her the answer right away, the girl raised an eyebrow again in what seemed to be interest. "What?"

His grin stretched into a smirk. "O-_laugh."_

She snickered, which was a sort of cute trill of laughter, and his heart soared a bit in his chest. He didn't know exactly what the feeling was, but he decided to call it victory.

"Your jokes _are_ pretty bad," she admitted after she was done laughing with a contemplative look, "But they're not terrible. They're…kind of endearing, I guess."

His heart soared again. Yep, that was definitely victory.

"Thanks," Leo chirped happily, self-satisfied. He began to notice for the first time how pretty this girl actually was; her hair was a little past shoulder length, and she had tan skin that was a bit darker than his. She caught his gaze for a second and quickly looked down at her lap, where she wrung her gloved hands around and crossed her legs. She wore a blue jacket and ripped, black jeans, and some band t-shirt poked out from behind her unzipped jacket – probably Fall Out Boy or MCR or something – and he swore she actually _blushed. _Or he was hallucinating. Or maybe he just really, really wanted her to.

His cheeks quickly turning red, Leo looked away too as the girl muttered out a quick, "No probs."

Leo grinned down at his lap, not bothering to look up. He said 'no probs' a lot, too.

The train ride, which he had grown oblivious to, finally came to an end. The car slid into the next station, and the people around them started to come to life. The girl was the first to stand, shouldering a backpack as she rocked back and forth on the heels of her Doc Martins. Leo stood, too, and then suddenly they were face to face with each other.

"Um…" his extremely lame, stupid traitor of a voice decided to crack on the first word. "Er – um," _Shit. _"Bye."

"Yep. See ya." She said rather nonchalantly before turning towards the door of the train car, totally ignoring him now. For a second, all he could think was _"Did you see how easily she just turned on you like that? After that moment you two just had? Did she even blush before; was she even fazed?" _ Leo silently ran a thousand questions through his mind, and he was effectively zoning himself out when he felt a hand on his back, and he was pulled back to reality again.

He nearly jumped before he turned and saw Jason, who he had accidentally forgot about. The doors slid open and the blonde steered him out in one direction while the pretty tourist girl went in another direction, heading down the platform and out of sight. Turning back around, Leo caught a glimpse of the girl with the purple hat again as she walked down the platform and took an elevator up onto another level. A tight feeling in his chest, he hoped he wouldn't run into her again.

Falling into step behind Jason, Leo watched the bustling commuters as a question came to his mind. Jason stopped by a huge map display, and Leo came up behind him.

"So, uh, where are we exactly?"

"We're by Central Park," Jason stated, taking a finger and trailing it down the path they had taken to their current location, which was pin-pointed on the map by the bolded words "_YOU ARE HERE"._ Leo scratched his chin before tilting his head to the side.

"So, we're in the right place?"

_"Yes," _Jason rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed with Leo's amazing attention span. "We took the D train, remember? We're on the south end - southwest, to be exact."

"...Near 56th?"

"Near 56th," Jason repeated in confirmation, sighing as his arm dropped back to his side. Leo glanced around the station again as more and more people filled the dim space. "We'll board back on after we reach the end of the avenue, and then make a U-turn back here after we check out all the houses." Jason looked at something behind him, squinting his eyes. "I'm pretty sure the way out of here is the upper platform over. We should get going - c'mon, Leo."

Jason pushed past him, taking long strides towards an escalator at the other end of the platform. A train rushed into the station to their left, screeching loudly over the murmur of the busy crowd around them. Jason walked fast, and Leo jogged to keep up, dodging official-looking men with briefcases, and hipsters whose personas were fueled by midday city train rides.

Leo caught up to him, striding in step with the stoic Jason Grace as he pushed his interaction with the two girls to the back of his mind. "So...I see you've memorized the train routes. You're really bent on moving here, huh?"

"I guess," Jason shrugged. The heels of his shoes clicked against the floors, and Leo noticed that he looked straight ahead as he walked. "You should know them, too, you know. You're the one who actually lives here."

"Yeah," Leo replied, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I guess so, but I never take the subway, anyway."

Jason grunted. They stepped onto the escalator, ascended onto the next floor, and kept walking as they moved along.

Leo began to whistle, bored out of his mind. They jogged up a flight of stairs and emerged on Fifth Avenue, wading through a group of pedestrians.

Cars and taxis honked their horns as they slugged down the busiest street in the city. All kinds of people pushed past them as they joined the throng, and Jason gave Leo a tentative sideways glance before continuing off in direction of the first house they planned to check out.

Leo noticed, and watched inquisitively as Jason cleared his throat with a little smile.

"So, uh - you saw that girl on the train?"

Leo blushed. The tip of his ears turned pink. "What, the one who dissed me off or the one who took pity on me?"

Jason rolled his eyes as he cut across the walkway to avoid a group of chattering teenage girls. "The one who actually seemed to like you."

Oh. He meant the tourist girl. "…Yeah…"

"You threw out some pretty terrible puns back there," Jason recalled without looking back at him, still forging ahead. "They were of the extremely painful variety. I kind of expected her to jump off the train or something."

Leo glared at his back. "Wow, thanks Jace."

"Oh, _c'mon_ man," Jason slowed down a bit to match his friend's pace, nudging him in the shoulder with an encouraging grin. "She was totally into you! You should have at least asked her name or something. I can't stand seeing you so pathetically lonely – "

_"Pathetically?"_

Jason shrugged. "For lack of a better word, I guess."

Leo rolled his eyes and waved off Jason's propositions with a sigh. "Stay out of my love life, Grace. If you think you have a better track record when it comes to dating, then you're seriously wrong."

"I'm not the one who's been out of the game for six months."

Leo pretended to ignore him.

"And at least I've hooked up with more than one person."

More silence. Jason decided to play his douche card.

"...At least I _'open up'."_

_"Goddamnit!" _Leo flung his hands into the air, and if this wasn't New York, he would have gained the attention of the strangers rushing by. At the mention of his last relationship (Calypso…not a pretty story) he gave Jason a wounded glare. "What do you _want _from me?"

"I want you to find somebody." Jason replied simply with a bit of a shrug. Leo rolled his eyes and crossed his arms with a flourish.

"You know what?" Leo spat. "I think I'm gonna ignore you for the rest of the day - or better yet, the rest of my 'pathetic' life. Can we just go check out the stupid apartment now?"

"Sure thing, man." said Jason with a goofy grin, giving a very annoyed Leo Valdez a playful shove. "Let's go."

* * *

.**.**.

* * *

_**a/n:** hey guys! im late (again) with my big fic for liper december, but here it is! it's been a whole year since ignite, and i really wanted to participate again this year as a kind of 'thank you' for supporting me with my story last year :) i'll post this on AO3 and tumblr as soon as i can, and if you want to read it on one of those platforms, there are links on my profile. a little more info before i sign off:_

_1) this is a multichaptered au_

_2) povs change between piper and leo (others might include jason and reyna)_

_3) no arsonists here (and this is dedicated to 50shadesofzukoshonor on tumblr!)_

_and that's all! i should have the next chapter up by tuesday. thanks for reading!_


	2. empty shelves

_.-._ .-._ .-._ **Reyna**_.-._ .-._ .-._

* * *

"And that's all, Ms. Ramirez-Arellano! Everything's all wrapped up. In all honesty, I really didn't expect you to come up with the money on time—"

"Oh, it's no problem." She cuts him off, offering a tight-lipped smile. "Really, don't worry about it Mr. Klein. I didn't think I would manage either. But thank you for giving me the opportunity to extend the date for the final payment; my sister and I are extremely grateful."

He gave an overzealous nod of his head, blue eyes as wide as his smile. "I'm happy to have helped. And with such a good offer, how could I say no?"

Sitting in a foldable chair across the table from the smiling, middle-aged real estate agent, Reyna beamed. She maintained the grin as he stood to his feet, reaching over to take her hand in his before giving it a firm shake.

She let the smile fall as he turned to the table and began collecting all the signatured paperwork she had just filled out, which had taken a lot out of her. Reyna watched with pursed lips as he straightened the stack of papers on the desk before sliding them into a pocket in his brown messenger bag, and that was the last she would see of them. He glanced up, his salt-and pepper hair flopping to one side with the movement. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Reyna."

"Thank you. You too." She smiled again as they both tucked their chairs back under the desk. Reyna looked around the tall, open-spaced room and sighed contentedly at the dark green walls and streams of midday sunlight peeking in through the curtains. Just as the agent started walking past her and out of the study, she remembered that she'd have to call her sister to tell her the good news—and to thank her for offering to pay half of the price for the expensive household. Really, she couldn't have done this without Hylla's help.

The agent walked into the main hall and faced the door, shrugging on his heavy coat as Reyna stepped out from under the doorframe of the study. She waited patiently for him to fling the end of his scarf over his shoulder before they exchanged their last goodbyes and she locked the door of the household behind him. As soon as she shut the heavy, oaken door of her father's old home, she turned and leaned against it, facing the long, winding hall and open doorways. Reyna almost couldn't believe it. This place was _hers_ now. She didn't know whether she should feel triumph or dread.

Triumph, because she had been trying to get a hold on this place for months. When her Dad was younger, he had moved up to New York with his siblings and lived in this house for some years. It was almost like it was part of her. Her grandfather had died in this house. Some of her aunts and uncles had been born and raised here, from the very start. When her grandparents were gone, her father had taken the responsibility of maintaining the house onto his own shoulders—and now here she was. It was _hers._

The dread? Well, besides the fact that the house could have been haunted by the ghost of Grandpapi Ramirez-Arellano (which she _really _didn't like to ponder on), buying the place had cost her an arm and a leg. And probably a few internal organs. Trying to outbid two different buyers hadn't been a walk in the park. That's why Reyna had needed Hylla's help—her older sister, who held the keys to the house they grew up in back in San Juan. Hylla made a good amount of cash working as the financial supervisor for Amazon, so it really wasn't that much of a problem for her. The big problem Reyna had now was that she had loaned over ninety thousand dollars from the bank—which was definitely not good on her wallet—and that she needed to pay it back. And if she wanted to get back to California in time to manage the summer camp she worked at, she'd have to do it fast.

She was thinking of picking up a few tasks around town when her phone started to vibrate in her pocket, and she pulled it out to see a text from her friend Nico.

**[ Nico ] : so r u just gonna starve or are u coming to the shop?**

Reyna hadn't realized it before, but she hadn't really eaten much all day. Leaning back on the rail to the stairway, she was surprised that she hadn't noticed before. Between talking to the agent, chatting with her sister, and scraping up the funds for the apartment, she didn't think to eat anything.

**[ Reyna ] : I am not starving, di Angelo. I've been busy signing papers all day. I'll come by soon if I can.**

**[ Nico ] : lmao why do u text like that**

**[ Reyna ] : Like what?**

**[ Nico ] : nevermind. just come by soon ok**

Reyna bit her lip. Before she could change her mind, her stomach growled in protest. Yup, she was _definitely_ stopping by the café.

"**[ Reyna ] : Ok"** she texted back before quickly sliding her phone into her back pocket. Shrugging on the blue coat that had been hanging on the banister of the staircase, Reyna opened the door of the apartment and walked into the mid-morning rain, leaving the household just as the real estate agent had.

* * *

The midday sun peered through thin clouds of smog, and diluted sunlight shone down on the crisp pages of the novel in Reyna's hand as she walked. Loosened wisps of her hair flew out behind her as she strode, and she absently tucked her hat into her bag now that it had stopped raining. Puddles of murky water had gathered at street corners and at low places in the sidewalk, and she sidestepped them effortlessly. She almost snorted as she read a paragraph on the effects of magnetism. New York wasn't that hard to figure out at all.

Well, that is, until she nearly fell onto some train tracks.

Ugh, Reyna hated taking the subway almost as much as she hated being hit on. And both misfortunes had befallen upon her not half an hour ago. Still walking and weaving in and out of the oncoming stream of pedestrians, Reyna decided not to give the whole ordeal much thought as she neared the address of her friend's job, spotting the telltale black and gold streetlight by the corner. Once she reached the end of the sidewalk, she took a right, and found herself standing directly in front of a pair of heavy glass doors with Christmas lights draped around the frame.

She was about to just walk right in before she spotted someone coming towards the door just as she moved to open it.

"Comin' through!"

Reyna stepped aside as a burly man carrying a huge stack of boxes made his way towards her. Before they could have a head-on collision, she smartly stepped to the side and pushed the door of the restaurant open, holding it for him with one hand. When the man saw her, he grunted out a "Thanks Ma'am," before staggering out of the shop and down the street towards a sleek, black company car.

Letting the door slide closed behind her, Reyna faced the bustling Brooklyn restaurant.

Dozens of people ate and chatted in all corners of Maria's. The tables were high up and polished, some littered with textbooks and notes seeing as how they were occupied with students from the local university. A bunch of students crowded the counter, lined up in a scattered row as numbers were called and people came to receive their orders. The black paint on the walls was old and peeling, but otherwise, the place felt brand new.

Reyna approached the back of the line, standing in place behind a tall gentleman in a suit chatting away into his phone. Waiting for the line to surge forward as the people around her continued with their business, Reyna took out her book again, skimming over paragraphs of theorems before taking a step forward just as everyone above her had.

Successfully ignoring the chatter and bustling of the other people in the shop, Reyna kept reading.

Until someone interrupted her, of course.

"Hey Reyna!" Reyna glanced up, one brow ticking in annoyance. She leaned out of line for the briefest of moments to see Nico standing behind the counter, tall and gangly as ever with his dark green apron on beneath a tentative smile. He waved.

"Ugh." she grumbled as she glanced at the page in her book before shutting and stuffing it into her bag. She cupped her gloved hands over her mouth with a wry grin as if the line in front of her kept the two of them worlds apart. "Hey, Nico!"

The man in front of her paused his call to twist around, giving her a side-eyed glare. Reyna snapped her lips shut, chest tight and face heated as she quickly dropped her hands to her sides. Oh God—she forgot that he had been on the phone. Her bad.

She chose to ignore the sound of Nico's laughter from the front.

"Shut up," she mouthed, cheeks red. He just kept snickering behind one hand, but was quickly diverted by a rather angry-looking customer who he'd kept waiting at the counter. His usually pale complexion went beet red when the young lady starting yelling at him, and Reyna was really glad she got her turn to laugh when he spared her a look of distress before getting swept up in the heat of the order.

It wasn't long before the line lurched forward, and Reyna found herself fourth from the front. As Nico occupied himself with his work, she drifted into boredom again, and pulled out her phone to check her last calls.

One text from Hazel asking how the city was. Two missed calls from Frank, one of which she had returned earlier and the other she hadn't tended to yet. She was glad to see that she hadn't gotten anything from Octavian—her whiny, son of a bitch coworker at camp—and that news brightened her spirits a bit. If she could get through this trip with minimal interference on his part, she just might be able to kick back and relax. Maybe, after she was done unpacking, she could see an off-Broadway production. Or maybe, once her loans had been paid off and she could afford a ticket back home, she could shop down Fifth Avenue and buy herself a new wardrobe. She nearly laughed aloud at that last thought, because _man_—was that wishful thinking or _what_—but she still entertained it anyway, if only a tiny bit. Besides, it wasn't like it was impossible. She could totally do it. If she worked hard enough, this entire thing would blow over in a few months, and she could go home. No big deal. She'd just have to take on a high paying job or two, and she'd be exploring the city with Nico in no time.

It didn't occur to her that she had reached the front of the line until Nico reached across the counter to wave a hand in her face. She snapped out of it all too quickly.

"—Oh, um, sorry." Her face heated up again. She pursed her lips at Nico's amused grin and chose to ignore him for a second time, training her eyes on the menu board that hung low above his head. "Instead of teasing me, could you do me a favor and get me one turkey and spinach on rye, and a cup of pomegranate nectar?" She smiled sweetly as he punched in her order. "You can put it on your tab."

"_Fine," _he grumbled, fishing in the pocket of his apron before slipping out a wallet and flipping through to find his card. He swiped it, then looked up at her, grinning. "Only because it's your first time eating here in like, five years."

"Thank you," she chirped politely, toting a pleased smirk as he turned his back to grab a plastic cup. He punched a button on shop's drink dispenser machine that filled the cup with a dark, frothy liquid.

"You know," he started in a low voice as he spun back to face her, placing the cup on the counter, which she took without breaking eye contact, "you don't have to wait in line. You're practically family here, Reyna." He gave her a shy grin, one she couldn't help but smile at. He looked awkward hunching down to talk to her like this. "I mean, I'd be willing to pay for you again, but my shift always ends at the end of the night. You could always drop by then, and I'd be happy to fix you up with a free meal."

"Oh, how sweet." She reached up to warmly pat his cheek like she used to, and he rolled his eyes, ducking his head to escape her embarrassing gesture. When he turned away, eyelids low and cheeks rosy, she scoffed, offended.

"Oh, stop evading me! I'm trying to say thank you, di Angelo! Is this any way to treat your former camp counselor?" She put her hands on her hips, giving him a fake glare as he groaned and raked a hand through his dark, shaggy hair. "_Nico. _ Don't you groan with me. Where are your manners?"

"I'm _nineteen." _he stressed with a moan, one hand dragging down his face as his dark brown eyes darted around to see if anyone was looking at him. Reyna caught the gaze of two giggling employees in uniform farther down the counter, who then cut themselves short at Reyna's smirk. Nico noticed them, and flushed red. Her smirk deepened. Mission accomplished.

His voice raised an octave higher when he let his hand drop to his side, face contorted into a look of pure agony. "Stop embarrassing me in front of my coworkers!"

She thought about it...and decided to let things go. She'd had her fun, and she could see out of the corner of her eye that another employee had her order ready in a plastic bag, straight from the kitchen. Reyna let out a drawn out sigh. "Alright, fine. I will. _For now." _She beckoned to the worker, who looked surprised at being summoned, and then took her purchase in hand, giving Nico an exaggerated _I'm watching you _hand signal over the counter. When he paled, she laughed, and he quickly turned away to take the order of the next customer, a tall blonde in tennis clothes.

Upon leaving the restaurant, Reyna took a deep breath of ozone-filled air, marveling at the pale grey skies that filled the spaces between the tall buildings that lined down the block in either direction. She entered the flow of sidewalk traffic with ease, absently sticking her straw into her drink before taking a long sip of the sweet, pungent drink. As she retraced her steps to the subway, she couldn't help but grin at the scene that had just unfolded—and giggle to herself, because ever since she'd left dreary California, it felt like the best thing in the world.

* * *

The next day came without ceremony.

Outside the window of the study, the awakening sun began to rise, illuminating the quaint, spacious room before it with a warm golden light. The morning haze spilled from the windowsill onto the carpeted floor, creeping towards the tall, mahogany bookcase mounted on the wall at the opposite end of the room. The sunlight made the golden lettering on the backings of her father's old, musty books shine, and sitting in the center of it all, with thin fibers dancing through the air as she sifted through boxes of old discarded things, Reyna knew she had a lot of work to do.

For one thing, she still had to get to re-painting a few of the rooms. This place wasn't as welcoming as their old flat in San Juan—the area was a lot noisier, and cars constantly sped by down the street outside—but it was nonetheless home to her now. And if she really wanted it to feel like her old home, she would have to repaint the ugly pink walls with colors much more practical, like white, or grey. Or maybe something more interesting, like beige.

Reyna was still sifting through boxes and skimming over the faded titles of her father's books when her cell phone began to ring. She put the books in her hands aside and sat back, folding her legs under her as she looked down at the screen. At first, she feared it was Octavian calling her to complain about some shit that was going on in California _(again), _but she was pretty surprised to see that it was Zhang, and when he called, it was usually pretty urgent news.

Feeling somewhat nervous, Reyna put the phone to her ear.

"_Reyna?" _he spoke first. His voice was muffled and full of static. Reyna shifted around and pulled her legs out from under her, spreading them on the dark carpet of the study.

"Frank? Is something wrong?" she asked, immediately voicing her concerns. Frank was back in California with Octavian in charge of the summer camp, so she expected the worst. Did the little blonde bastard finally hurt somebody? She really hoped not. She really hated lawsuits.

"_What? Nothing's wrong. Why would you think – " _he immediately stopped, catching himself. "_Oh yeah…the last two times I called were about Octavian. Right."_

"…Yeah."

On the other line, Zhang chuckled. "_Well believe it or not, I actually have some pretty good news this time, if you're interested in hearing it."_

Reyna sat back, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as she voiced her thoughts. "Is this about Hazel again?"

She could practically hear him fluster. "_I_—_it's not_—_no!"_ he said quickly. He was probably blushing a dark red. "_Of_—_of course not!_ _It's about Lupa. She's coming to visit soon."_

Hearing this, she sat up straight. Lupa? Coming to visit? "Wait—_Lupa? _Are you serious?"

"_Yeah! She called in yesterday to say she's making plans."_

Biting her lip, Reyna glanced around at the various items littering the floor of the dusted off study. She still had tons of boxes to get through, and thousands of books to put away—this was bad. Bad, bad, bad. If she couldn't make it back to California in time for Lupa's visit…

Reyna thought of ways to postpone her boss from coming. Zhang's good news didn't sound so great to her.

"Frank? Still there?"

"…_Yeah?"_

"If I can't make it back in time, do you think you can manage the camp by yourself for a while?"

"…_What?"_

"As in Octavian will be taking an unpaid leave. I just need him to be gone long enough for Lupa to not see the chaos he's unleashed on her summer program."

"_Oh, come on Rey,"_ he tossed out the nickname she hated so much, and she couldn't help but exhale in disdain. "_Octavian's not that bad this time. He led out in fencing _and _horseback riding today. And this time, not a single kid was maimed."_

"That's not the point," she began to explain, her tone growing agitated. "Lupa's the camp sponsor! She's like a mother to me! I don't want her to be disappointed with the way I'm running things."

"_But…you're not here, so…"_

"I _know," _said Reyna with a roll of her eyes and an exasperated sigh. "That's the problem. Just—keep things in check until I get back, okay? Unfortunately, I still have a lot of work to do. Tell Octavian I didn't say hi."

"_Okay,"_ Frank sounded unsure, but there were crackling noises on the other line as he moved to end the call between them. "_Bye."_

As soon as he hung up, Reyna let out a long groan, glancing at the tall, mostly empty bookshelves and the stacks of novels littering the office floor. Her Fifth Avenue shopping spree would have to wait, she decided.

She was going to be in New York for a while.

* * *

**a/n:**_ so heyyyy guys. my bad. i know it's been a year and time (let's not dwell on it, shall we?) but in all honestly, the plot for this entire story grabbed me last night of all nights, and it's the first inspiration i've had for this in months. please rebuke what i said last chapter about the povs switching between piper and leo, because obviously, that was a lie. the chapters will most likely follow a pattern that you will discover in two chapters that switches between reyna, leo, jason and piper. now that that's all said and done, i'm glad to be back, and i will not wait a year and six months to update this ever again, i promise. hopefully, it'll be done before i start my senior year this fall!_

_one more thing: this chapter is a slight nod to Café Jupiter, which is one of my favorite fics of all time by my designated big sister figure 1ooo-w0rds. love ya girl! and once again, forgive me for taking over a year with this, my bad._


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